Female Stress Urinary Incontinence (FSUI) is a disorder that can interfere with daily activity and impair the quality of life of women. In approximately 30% of the women suffering from FSUI, incontinence is caused by intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD), a condition in which the valves of the urinary sphincter do not properly coapt. In approximately another 30% of FSUI sufferers, incontinence is caused by hypermobility, a condition in which the muscles around the bladder relax, causing the bladder neck and proximal urethra to rotate and descend in response to increases in intraabdominal pressure. Hypermobility may be the result of pregnancy or other conditions which weaken the muscles. Urinary incontinence may also be caused by a combination of ISD and hypermobility. Other causes of urinary incontinence include birth defects, disease, injury, aging, and urinary tract infection.
Numerous approaches for treating urinary incontinence are available. For example, several procedures for stabilizing and/or slightly compressing the bladderneck or urethra to prevent the leakage of urine have been developed. The stabilizing or compressive force may be applied directly by sutures passing through the soft tissue surrounding the urethra or, alternatively, may be applied by means of a sling suspended by sutures. In some procedures bone anchors are inserted into the pubic bone or symphysis pubis in order to anchor the sutures to the bone. The suture or sling is anchored to the bone by one or more bone anchors and the support provided improves the incontinence condition.
The instruments used to insert bone anchors are designed to be inserted transvaginally and to position the bone anchor so that a retrograde or pulling force is applied for insertion of the anchor into the bone. However, the optimal configuration or position of the handle of such an instrument for insertion of the device into the vagina is not necessarily the optimal handle position for providing a retrograde force for implanting the bone anchors into the bone. For example, the fixed handle position of conventional bone anchor devices is particularly awkward when treating obese patients.